If José Mourinho was already teetering on the brink then this is the kind of defeat that may push any manager into the abyss. It was not that Chelsea succumbed to a sixth league loss of a hapless Premier League title defence. Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool were excellent and would have tested teams far more confident than the ailing champions. Rather, it was the manner of the surrender. To have led and then disintegrated, just as they had to Southampton earlier in the month, felt damning and, in truth, far too much of this was humiliating.

José Mourinho defiant and says he expects to stay as Chelsea manager

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The manager, initially reluctant to offer any assessment at all of a dispiriting afternoon, ended up treading a familiar path. He would not say it himself, what with two sanctions already hanging over him from the Football Association, but his post-match referrals to a “lack of respect for his players” centred upon the referee, Mark Clattenburg, and his fourth official, Lee Mason. There was exasperation at the excessive stoppage time played at the end of the first half, in which Philippe Coutinho drew the visitors level, and vehement complaints that Lucas Leiva’s brace of fouls within 10 second-half minutes, when the game was level and tension was mounting, drew only one yellow card when Mourinho and his players were baying for a red.

The Brazilian was fortunate – Crystal Palace’s Dwight Gayle, sent off by the same referee for a pair of similar fouls against West Ham two weeks ago, may echo the locals’ frustration – and even Klopp acknowledged “you need a bit of luck if you want to win at Chelsea”. Yet, as ever, the visitors could point to other inconsistencies, not least an apparent kick from Diego Costa into Martin Skrtel’s chest, as having gone similarly unpunished. That pair have history. Yet Mourinho’s complaints over the performance of the officials could not mask the deficiencies in his own players’ display. There was no lack of effort or commitment but there was a dearth of bite, cohesion and belief. Confidence is still shattered and, as yet, Mourinho has offered no indication that he can restore it.

The scenario played out here, with the Portuguese helpless and alone in his technical area, was all too familiar.

It was actually near identical to the thrashing endured against Ronald Koeman’s team on 3 October: the plundering of an early goal to suggest dominance, only for that hint of ascendancy to prove deceptive; a steady erosion of conviction thereafter; and a collapse midway through the second half. Ramires’s early header, thumped down and through Simon Mignolet as he burst beyond a dawdling Alberto Moreno, was a false dawn. Chelsea had outnumbered and outpassed James Milner and Nathaniel Clyne on the opposite flank, with Eden Hazard flicking César Azpilicueta to the byline for the Spaniard to supply the centre. But that was the Belgian’s only real eye-catching contribution. He would not see out the hour and, instead, the playmaker in the opposing ranks would hold sway.

Coutinho revelled in the space afforded him by an obliging Chelsea defence. The Brazilian had Emre Can or Lucas snapping away at his back, regaining possession and closing down the hosts higher and higher up the pitch, while Milner and Clyne made amends down their flank to force the champions further into retreat. The sight of Gary Cahill and John Terry flinging themselves in the way of battered attempts drew appreciation from those in the stands but the desperation of the defending reflected a shift in momentum. Liverpool, with Klopp a frenzy of instruction in the technical area, had realised they were the more threatening side and, as the contest progressed, their stranglehold was reflected in the scoreline.

Asmir Begovic claimed from Adam Lallana and Lucas but Clyne and Milner, culpable at Liverpool’s concession, were making too many inroads on the wing. The hosts were praying for a half-time whistle, Mourinho waiting in the mouth of the tunnel, when Coutinho gathered on the edge of the box, cut inside Ramires’s lunge and curled a sumptuous shot inside the far post beyond Begovic’s despairing dive. Coutinho’s second, from just inside the penalty area, flicked off the advancing Terry and deflected in beyond Begovic. Christian Benteke, performing the Graziano Pellè role, calmly added a third as Chelsea failed to close down the substitute, though, by then, there was a certain inevitability to it all.

Klopp will have spied plenty from his first away win, and the side’s first since the campaign’s opening weekend, to offer encouragement that Liverpool, under his guidance, will recover their own poise, even if he was comically dismissive of ambitious talk of an early title challenge. “Oh please, are you crazy?” he said with a guffaw. “I’ve been here three weeks. You think, after one win at Chelsea, we should be thinking about a title?”

There was a time, not long ago, when triumphing at Stamford Bridge would have fuelled such belief but not at present. Mourinho has never lost more than six league games in a single season, and he has suffered that many in 11 matches to date this term. He will reconvene his coaching staff back at Cobham on Sunday to begin preparations for Wednesday’s Champions League contest against Dynamo Kyiv, with another trip to Stoke City to follow on Saturday. Both might once have been considered very winnable games but there is no respite at present and no real sign of recovery. This campaign has long since unravelled.